The sponsorship revenue for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia has dropped in comparison to the last edition in Brazil.

This was disclosed by a World Football Report 2018 published by Nielsen Sports, which showed that revenue dropped from $1.628bn in Brazil to $1.334bn for this summer’s tournament in Russia.

The fall in revenue could be attributed to the failure to renew various FIFA partnerships on the part of long-time sponsor brands like Johnson & Johnson, Castrol and Continental.

The failure to renew is reportedly not unconnected to the corruption scandals that have turned world football’s governing body into a “toxic” brand in the West.

This, however, opener the door for Chinese brands like Wanda, Hisense, Vivo and Mengniu who have now become part of the FIFA sponsorship program.

The current FIFA partners include Adidas, Coca-Cola, Gazprom, Wanda Group, Visa, Qatar Airways and Kia/Hyundai.

World Cup sponsors, that can activate around the World Cup as well as the Confederations Cup, include Vivo, Budweiser, Hisense, McDonalds and Mengniu, while the regional partners consist of four Russian companies namely Alrosa, Alfa-bank, Russian Railways and Rostele.